George t



(No Model.)

G. T. CHAPMAN. WAGON SPRING.

No. 509,876. Patented Deo, 5, 1893.

- lWITNEsslis: E

ATTORN EY UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

GEORGE T. CHAPMAN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO VILLIAM HARVEY MERRITT, OF SAME PLACE.

WAGON-SPRING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters latent No. 509,876, dated December 5, 1893.

Application filed October 20, 1892.

T a/ZZ wiz/0m. t may concern;

Be it known that I, GEORGE T. CHAPMAN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of New York city, in the county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Wagon-Springs, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to mounting the body or buck-board on the springs by means of Io vibrating bearing brackets of the character represented in my Patent No. 477,622, and it consists in improved devices of the conuection of the body or buck-board and bearing brackets, and in an improved arrangement of the spring and bolster or head block to reinforce the springs as the stress increases, as hereinafter described reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l, is a front elevation of a buck 2c board, spring and axle to which my invention is applied. Fig. 2, is a side elevation of the same on a larger scale with the buck board broken off and the axle cut in transverse section. Fig. 3, is a sectional elevation on line z5 :c Fig. l, also enlarged. Fig. 4, is a detail in section on line y y, Fig. 3. Fig. 5, is also a section on line y-y, showing a roller bearing instead of the elastic bearing represented in the other figures.

The invention is alike applicable to buck board and side bar wagons, and the buck board a, herein represented may also be regarded as the body of a side bar wagon so far as illustrating the invention is concerned. It is mounted on the springs b, through the instru mentality of bearing brackets c,-herein after called brackets-which are as I now arrange them composed of straight bars except as they may be bent at the neck of the ball 4o in some cases as in Figs. 2 and 3, and instead of being bent so as to be pivoted directly to the under side of the body are pivoted at d, to the under side of the cross bar e, attached to the body. Near the edge of said cross bar next to the spring a body f preferably of elastic material as rubber-is fixed in a socket in the under side of the cross bar for the bearingof the cross bar thereat on the bracket, said rubber body having suitable projection 5o to form the sole bearing and the projection is also designed to be such that it will yield Serial No.4491446. (No model.)

laterally as the brackets play and they avoid the slipping of the brackets on the bearings which is objectionable on account of the squeaking noise and the wear. This is feasible because the lateral vibrations of the brackets are limited to the lengthwise variations of the springs which are slight, but for trucks for heavy loads rollers h, may be used. The brackets normally rest with the inner 5o edges against stopsf which keep the body central and prevent further and unnecessary lateral vibrations of the body that might otherwise occur. These stops consist in this example of my invention, of part of a yoke guard pendent from the body, and extending under the brackets near the spring to keep the said brackets and the body in their due parallel relation and prevent wrenching the pivots d, when sudden severe upward jerks 7o of the body would otherwise tend to thrust them in `that direction more quickly than the movements of the spring. These yokes have sufficient width between the vertical memy bers to allow the full range of vibration of the brackets the adjustment being such that in the normal or most contracted condition of the springs the inner edges ofthe brackets lodge against the inner vertical members which thus form the aforesaid stops, as shown 8o in Fig. 4. The brackets are connected to the spring by the ball and socket joints g, but this forms the subject of another application for a patent led at the same time with this, and is not claimed herein, and is not therefore particularly described. The elastic bearings lnay of course be Set in sockets if preferred.

For reinforcing the springs as the stress increases said springs and the bolster or axle 9o whereon they are supported are arranged in a way whereby the springs have bearing support progressively along the bolster or axle toward the bearing points of the load on the springs as the stress of the load on the springs increases, the said reinforcing bearing of the bolster or axle being atan intermediate point between the center bearing point of the spring thereon, and the bearing points of the load on the spring, curved downwardly from the roo level of the rest of the support, so that when under excessive thrusts the load supporting points are depressed below the center point of support, the spring being pressed over'said curved portions will have greater range than when it comes to rest on such a reinforcing support Whereon it strikes the whole length from its center support to the end or nearly so, and will gradually recover its power of overcoming the down thrusts and of recoil and thus avoid the shocks of such longer support, and the action is easier on the spring and less liable to break it than when the spring is seated in a short concave seat of the bolster seas to be unduly strained over the angles at the extremities of the seat. To this end the bolster t', or its equivalent part of the aXle, when the spring is mounted directly thereon, is extended a suitable distance lfrom the Vcenter bearing of the spring' on it toward the outer end, say from about one to two `thirds of the said distancewith its bearingsurface level with the center pointl of the bearing ofthe yspring on it, and therefrom is curved downward 'as at j, so that the spring `will bend easily downward thereon,l

and afford greaterrange for'more gradual relie't` when the shocks are too severe for the recovery and recoil o`fthe spring at the level of the-center bearing point of the spring on the'bolster.

I clairn- 1. 'The combination with the body and springs of the pivoted laterally vibratingl connecting brackets and laterally vibratory bearings of the body on the brackets intermediate ofthe pivots of the brackets and the springs substantially as described.

2. The combination with the body and springs, of the pivoted laterally vibrating connecting brackets and elastic laterally vibratory bearings of the body on the brackets intermediate ot' the pivots of the brackets andthe springs silbstantialljy'a-s described.

3. The combination with the body and springs, of the pivoted laterally vibrating connecting brackets and the cross bar interposed between said brackets and the body, and laterally vibratory bearings of the cross bar on the brackets and intermediate of the pivots of the brackets and the spring substantially as described.

4. The combination with the body andl springs, of the pivoted laterally vibrating connecting bracket-slaterally vibratory bearings of the body on the brackets intermediate of the pivots of the brackets and the springs, and the guards coupling the brackets and body, said guards-adapted to permit vibrations of 'the body 'and brackets relatively to each other and forming stops to normally center the body on thesprings substantially as described.

5. In a wagon a semi-elliptic 'cross spring seated at the middle of its crowning side on a bolster the upper surface of which is a level plane for the most `part of its length 'and extends a material distance'each Way from `the point of contact of the spring on it in the normal condition, and at the extremities Ot the straight level portion is curved downward to permit descent of the load lsupporting points of the spring below the level of the `center support under excessive stress fsubstantially as described.

Signed at New York city, in the county and State of New York, this SOtlrdayof September, A. D. 1892. 

